Big Sky Season 1 Episode 9 Recap: “Let It Be Him”

By
Rebecca Murray
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Big Sky Season 1 Episode 9
Brian Geraghty stars in ‘Big Sky’ season 1 episode 9 (ABC/Darko Sikman)

ABC’s Big Sky season one episode nine, “Let It Be Him,” picks up with Ronald (Brian Geraghty) stepping outside his home with visible staple wounds in his forehead. He’s got two murders and a kidnapped newspaper boy on his mind and worries there’s too much to do.

Erik (Evan Whitten) asks Ronald for the umpteenth time if he plans on killing him. His constant questions have gotten on Ronald’s very last nerve and the psychopath demands Erik keep quiet. Erik refuses and continues his steady stream of questions.

Ronald loses it and points his gun at Erik, warning him to shut up.

Merilee Legarski (Brooke Smith) returns home and stares at the life-size standup of her hubby, remembering happier, less complicated times.

Over at the hospital, Rick (John Carroll Lynch) is having a dream in which the dozen or so women he’s kidnapped surround his bed. He jerks awake with Merilee asking who he was apologizing to in his sleep. She explains he said it all got out of hand, but Rick continues to claim he can’t remember anything.

Rick’s attorney Penelope Denesuk (Karin Konoval) joins them and Merilee fills her in on what she observed. She thinks her hubby’s conscience is back even if his memory isn’t. The attorney asks her to step outside and demands to know where Merilee stands – for or against her husband. Merilee says she’s on her own side.

Denise (Dedee Pfeiffer) goes door-to-door questioning customers on Erik’s paper route. By tracing who received the paper, they can track Erik’s route the morning he went missing.

Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) knocks on Ronald’s door, unaware she’s staring into the face of a killer. She shows him a photo of Erik and Ronald says he thinks he saw him that very morning. Ronald asks what’s happening, claiming he doesn’t really pay attention to the news because it’s so depressing. When Cassie asks about his mom, he lies and says she’s away right now.

Cassie leaves her card and then freezes as she’s walking away from the door. She has a flashback to the day she encountered Ronald at Merilee’s store.

Cassie arrives back at the agency and waits with Denise for confirmation on Ronald’s identity. (Jenny and Tubb are working on it at the station.) Denise discovers Ronald has absolutely no social media presence but does find a page belonging to Ronald’s mom. Jerrie (Jesse James Keitel) immediately identifies Ronald from a photo and is 100% sure Ronald kidnapped her and is Rick’s partner in crime.

Ronald peeps out his window but doesn’t spot any suspicious activity. He returns to the basement after creating a handle for a taser that will allow him to shock Erik without being in range to receive voltage from the taser Erik snagged. Erik refuses to drop the taser until Ronald zaps him twice.

The police gather not far from Ronald’s place, and Jenny (Katheryn Winnick) confesses to Cassie she hopes Ronald doesn’t surrender so she’s forced to kill him. Sheriff Walter Tubb (Patrick Gallagher) explains how it’s going to go down and warns his people it’s impossible to know what’s going on inside Ronald’s house. He announces Jenny and Cassie have been deputized and reminds everyone to be sure of their targets.

The convoy heads up to Ronald’s house where inside he’s just cocked his gun in preparation for the assault. It appears that the sheer number of officers on the scene has made Ronald alter his plans. He heads downstairs and grabs Erik, yanking him out of his cage.

Sheriff Tubb uses a bullhorn to warn Ronald he’s surrounded. When there’s no obvious movement inside the house, the officers use a battering ram and bust down the door. Ronald’s set up a gun to shoot as soon as the door’s broken down, and an officer goes down from the shotgun blast.

The officers enter Ronald’s home and carefully move throughout it. Cassie smells gas and they realize the place is rigged to explode. Tubb yells for everyone to evacuate, but Jenny’s already headed down to the basement away from the rest of the officers.

Cassie reaches Jenny and tells her to get out immediately. She’s found Erik unconscious, cuffed to the floor, and refuses to leave without him. Jenny’s able to finally free him and escapes just as explosions rip through the house.

She places a hooded Erik on the ground and turns him over only to discover it’s actually Ronald’s dead mom. There’s no sign of Ronald or Erik and Jenny figures out this was all a diversion.

A short while later it’s determined Ronald and Erik were not in the house when the explosions occurred. Their whereabouts are unknown.

Cassie yells at Jenny, telling her never to do that again. She doesn’t want to have to inform Jenny’s son his mother’s gone.

Sheriff Tubb learns Father Ted Maynard is also missing after telling a colleague he was going to visit Mrs. Pergman.

Over at the hospital, Rick seems to be stuck reliving the 1967 Red Sox pennant race. Attorney Denesuk warns him to listen up. She shows him a photo of Ronald and demands to know if Rick recognizes him. He claims he doesn’t, but Merilee watches his fingers drum the bed as he speaks. Penelope suggests that it may help his case if he does identify the man since he’s kidnapped a 12-year-old boy and is on the run.

Penelope asks if Rick knows where Ronald may have gone, but he continues to say he doesn’t know him. Merilee says, “You’re lying, Rick. You know. You know.”

Rick plays dumb and lapses back into the baseball talk. Merilee’s obviously disgusted with his response.

Big Sky Season 1 Episode 9
Jesse James Keitel in ‘Big Sky’ season 1 episode 9 (ABC/Darko Sikman)

Denise and Erik’s mom ask Jerrie if she can think of anything that might lead them to Ronald. She can’t, admitting she never pegged him as a killer.

Back at the Pergman place, Jenny, Cassie, Tubb, and Montana Highway Patrol Commander Elena Sosa (Sharon Taylor) try and figure out if Ronald has a car or is on foot. Elena wonders what type of vehicle the missing priest drove.

It’s determined Ronald is in fact most likely driving the priest’s black Tesla and an all-points bulletin is issued for the car.

Jenny and Cassie are on the hunt and try to determine which roads Ronald would feel the most comfortable traveling. Since he’s a trucker, he probably knows the interstate well.

Ronald pulls over and removes Erik from the car’s trunk. He moves Erik to the front seat and says he can stay there if he behaves.

Sheriff Tubb and Commander Sosa search for Ronald from the air. Sosa believes it’s possible Ronald’s on the interstate heading to Canada.

Jenny and Cassie spot a Tesla and the plates match the priest’s vehicle. They call Tubb for air support as Ronald puts the pedal to the metal. Tubb advises them to just follow him but not stop the car since backup is 20 minutes away.

Tubb and Sosa are flying over the chase as Cassie speeds up and tries to get beside Ronald’s car. Tubb wants her to fall back; he doesn’t want them injured or Erik hurt.

Jenny believes the Tesla will eventually run out of juice.

Merilee confronts Rick at the hospital, going over the list of songs he used to sing. One was about death and the other was about a hammer. She’s figured out he was going to kill her the night she woke up and found him standing by the bed holding a hammer.

She removes his hammer from her bag and calls it his problem solver. She knows he killed Cody and then the fisherman, and he meant to bash her head in to get rid of her. Merilee doesn’t want him to go free which he might if he keeps up this charade.

Rick assures her it’s just her menopause talking, and that response confirms Rick’s memory is back. Merilee beats him with the hammer, sending blood flying all over the hospital room.

Rick is definitely dead this time.

Returning to the chase, Jenny instructs Cassie to pull up to the passenger side. Cassie’s able to and they can clearly see Erik gagged and restrained in the front passenger seat.

Tubb informs them he’s learned Tesla is unable to shut off the car remotely. Sosa warns they’re about to hit traffic in a residential area and Ronald must be stopped now. Jenny decides she’ll try and shoot out the tires but just as they pull alongside again, Jenny’s shocked to see Father Maynard dead behind the wheel. The Tesla must be on autopilot!

Sosa suggests the only way to stop the car is to get in front of it. The car has an automatic disable that keeps it from hitting other vehicles.

Cassie pushes the truck to its limits and manages to get ahead of the Tesla only to discover there’s something in the road. She swerves to avoid it and does a 180, with her truck now facing the oncoming Tesla. They brace for impact, but the Tesla stops inches from the truck’s front bumper.

Cassie and Jenny retrieve a terrified Erik from the front seat as backup – and the helicopter – arrive on the scene. Erik asks for his mom and then thanks Cassie and Jenny for saving him. When asked about Ronald, Erik explains he put the car in drive and then climbed up a guardrail on a bridge. He’s not sure if Ronald jumped because the car sped away and he wasn’t able to see what Ronald was doing.

“I can’t believe I’m not dead,” says an exhausted Erik.

Tubb gets the news that Merilee murdered her husband.

Jenny and Cassie are sure they’re going to find Ronald. At least one of these men needs to face prison time for what they’ve done.

Erik reunites with his mom back at the detective agency and she’s overcome with emotion. She thanks Cassie and Jenny but only Cassie pulls her in for a hug. Jenny only offers a handshake. Erik thinks Jenny’s cool and as she walks away Cassie says quietly, “She’s not into taking credit. The best ones never are.”

Episode nine ends with Merilee placed under arrest followed by flashbacks of Cody, Ronald’s mom, and Rick in happier times. (You know, when they were still breathing.) Ronald smiles as he drives down the interstate in a big rig.




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